Website outages, cybersecurity attacks, and any other IT incidents can cost your company a lot of money. But these are only some of the reasons why you need an IT company. The IT company you hire should be competent and highly qualified to handle all your IT needs.

So, if you are looking to choose the best Houston IT company, here is what you should keep in mind:

Look for experience

You need to look for experience in your IT company. It may be tempting to work with a brand new and upcoming IT company but remember that experience is very important.

Something as important as IT support, warrants hiring a company who has been in the business for a while. Such a company brings with it experience and assurances. Even if the IT company has not been operating for a long time, their staff should be experienced. Ideally, you should ask for the credentials of their support staff. A company is as good as its employees. Also, these are the people you would probably be working with regularly and you would want to look for certifications and schooling in IT-related fields.

Look for expertise in your industry

Technology varies by industry. You must choose an IT company that has the know-how of your industry’s technologies. You should ask them questions like do they offer their services to other companies in your industry? Are they certified in your industry’s technologies?

Unless you are looking to switch infrastructure, finding an IT company that can support your systems is very important. Do your workstations and servers run on Windows or Mac OS or Linux? While technology is universal, expertise varies. It is worth mentioning over here that if your business uses custom applications, you cannot expect the IT company you hire to already know how to use your software. But given some time, they should be able to troubleshoot any problems. Also, many people forget that software development or programming and IT are two specialist fields.

Look for evidence of skills

Information Technology (IT) is a constantly evolving field. Computers and systems quickly become out of date and new solutions like cloud computing come up every now and then. These new solutions completely change how IT systems are run and are supported. As such, the best Houston IT company needs to show evidence of their skills. They have to constantly train and educate their staff so that there aren’t any service problems.

An IT company with satisfied customers will be comfortable with you talking to some of them. Don’t just rely on testimonials. Try to talk to some of their customers on the phone and through email and attempt to find out about the IT company’s skill sets. A company will never put you in touch with any of their customers about whom they are not confident of getting glowing reviews but at the least, you will be able to ask to follow up questions.

Make sure that you choose the right kind of support

As far as IT is concerned, needs vary. Make sure your expectations level up with the kind of support that they offer. IT companies generally offer ad hoc or break-fix support, managed support, and desktop or server support.

Under ad hoc or break-fix support, you agree to an hourly rate or a block of hours which can be used as needed. This can be expensive.

Managed IT services companies are based on a retainer system where you commit to a monthly fee in return for an agreed amount of work such as monthly guaranteed hours, a monthly maintenance plan, and/or a number of support calls or hours. Managed IT support Arlington can offer you the best benefits because it is in the IT company’s interest to learn more about your IT systems so that they can more easily provide support and ensure an ongoing relationship.

With desktop or server support, the benefit is that you may decide that you can handle the desktops and purely want server support.

You just need to be clear with the IT company what your real needs are.

Is there anything more that you want to know about choosing the best Houston IT company? You can leave your comments below.